| 27/10/2002: |
It's that time of year again, their words not mine... In order to cause maximum naming confusion, this year it was decided to hold the second set of awards in October/November.
Autumn 2002? Fall 2002? Hang on, it's neither in the Southern Hemisphere... That aside, is it fall, or is it autumn.
"Spring tyme, Somer, faule of the leafe, and winter." (1545, R. Ascham)
"A honey tongue, a heart of gall Is fancies spring, but sorrows fall." (1599, Raleigh)
"Autumpne comeþ aȝeyne heuy of apples." (c1374, Chaucer) (If that makes no sense, your browser doesn't support UTF-8 properly, or you don't read Middle English.)
By my reckoning that gives autumn (not to be confused with autumn) at least a 171 year head-start on fall. Case closed.
Vaguely reminiscent of a scene from Naked Gun 33 1/3, the (long) list of awards on offer was posted 26th October. Unlike the aforementioned scene, nothing humorous. Not one little thing. No luzers, cutest couples, or prolific anythings. OK, so you could call the 'best fun forum thread' humorous, but then, hey, you're beyond help. Nothing short of pilotchase is going to save us, I fear.
Other differences from past years? Well, this year you're not allowed to take a holiday without missing the awards, nominations open for one week, voting another. And we know you wouldn't want to miss such a wonderful event... Must be sure to get my nominations in before 11:59PM PDT, even if PDT will have finished by then.
On the positive side, there is a text version of the nominations system this time. "erm, so when they say "text version" of the nomination list, what they actually mean is "html with slightly fewer html tags version"?" Indeedy.
A few deserving nominations, with a collection of nauseating ones, as per usual.
| 28/10/2002: |
The nausea deepens.
Some controversy emerges involving co-organisers, pet categories, and two editor awards, but the issue is later resolved with two smileys, so I was unduly concerned -- all's good in the world.
As I'm writing this, a day after making my nominations, in which time many more have been included on the 'official list', my nominations have been ignored. I suppose I should have expected this, given I made one of them for the last awards too,
For the special achievement award, "Those people who aren't going to win mozzies, because they do unpopular but necessary stuff, or work in the background. The metas that track down abuse and get all the hate mail, the editalls that work through greens or reds in the background, or fix spelling mistakes and broken categories, and the editors that don't belong to a particular community where they can get support (a language, a top level, a real life community, or a chat room.)"
with one new one this year,
For most needed feature, "a popup dashboard sick bag" and/or "a button to hide all threads, dashboard notes, and feedback relating to editor awards", or anything else you can think of to ease the nausea.
Will have to see if I can get these on the list somehow.
| 29/10/2002: |
After a little persuasion clarification, my sickbag/button and special achivement nominations were added. Maybe there is justice in the ODP Awards world?
Will have to wait and see how voting goes.
The dashboard note is up. "Fall 2002". So, we're going for all encompassing then. Right-oh.
| 30/10/2002: |
Illustrating another timing oddity, the last awards' winner in the Best New Arts Editor category has been nominated for Best New Arts Editor. Not often you get the chance to fight to retain a 'best new' title...
| 3/11/2002: |
After apparently giving up on ending the nomination period at the stated time, the eventual time to close nominations was decided to be Sunday, November 3rd, at 1pm PT -- the logic behind this? Anyone's guess. If you have any suggestions, do mail them on a postcard or an e-mail, just not to me. [Ed: Surely because both the organisers were actually awake at that time?]
After a few initial teething problems (example), the polls were all opened. The awards have now seemingly been renamed "November 2002 ODP Mozzie Awards". It's a safe, if uninspiring, choice. [Ed: OK, so what do you want to call them?]
It's at this point I feel compelled to say something about the 'Biggest Luzer' award. This all started in the Spring 2001 editor awards, at item 3 where newwave nominated himself for 'biggest luzer', despite there, obviously, being no such award. The nomination was seconded at item 5, and thirded in item 81 by robjones, himself nominated for biggest luzer in item 82. Yours truly was nominated in item 20 of the second nominations thread.
To cut a quite wonderful story short, the poll came to fruition thanks to one meta who shall remain anonymous here, and so an unofficial extension to the already unofficial, but staff-supported, awards came about. In the end the "Each of the above editors are equally talented and prolific luzers. It is not possible to choose between them." option came out top, and all three editors sported a cool 'biggest luzer' graphic, for which much thanks goes to mfichtner, on their profiles for some time.
The Winter 2001 awards really built on the success of the biggest luzer poll, with several new novelty categories. The results mostly ended up ridiculous, but the thought was there. But, it was also the beginning of the non-staff-supported ODP awards. And the beginning of the end.
After the Winter 2001 awards, however, the magic of the biggest luzer award was lost. The Spring 2002 awards showed very little creativity, rehashing old categories. And this brings us onto the 'Fall' 2002 awards... Oh dear. No novelty awards at all.
There were, however, three nominations for biggest luzer. But the insistence to
Please only nominate for categories which are in the list in item0. The "biggest luzer" award has been removed this year.
would seem to have destroyed all hopes of any novelty categories.
Never averse to a little subversion, however, the opportunity to pay tribute to the Spring 2001 awards, hold a biggest luzer poll, and attempt to inject a little lightheartedness into the awards was too much for one meta, and very shortly after the 'official' list of nominations went up, the Biggest Luzer poll for the 'Fall' 2002 awards was born. They even managed to get the list of nominees right. ;)
| 4/11/2002: |
With voting well and truly underway, and the nomination period well and truly over, the dashboard note still offers editors the chance to nominate people.
More significantly, it becomes apparent nominees have been missed out of polls, including one editor that was nominated twice, once in part 2, and once in part 3. Several novel and not so novel solutions are suggested, although the currently employed one seems to be 'do nothing'. Am currently trying to work out who moved the ODP server to Florida.
2:42pm GMT, 48 votes in the biggest luzer poll. Going well.
4:18pm GMT, looks like a solution to the missing nominees has been found, and polls have been closed and re-opened.
56 votes in the biggest luzer poll, 0 in the Best New Science Editor and Best New Editor polls combined.
9:36pm GMT, 71 votes in the biggest luzer poll.
The campaigning for the most important award of them all (biggest luzer, naturally) is hotting up in the café with both newwave and robjones putting forward convincing arguments as to why you should vote for them. Rather than go into it here in detail I'll let you read it for yourselves in the relevant forum thread.
| 5/11/2002: |
Remember, remember, the 5th of November, gunpowder treason and plot... or at least another day in the Mozzies. Dashboard note still offers the chance to nominate...
3:40pm, the dashboard note has been updated. Still going for 'Fall'. falling down, five thousand houses burning down, no-one is gonna save this town. (Oh, this isn't Name That Tuna, is it. Feel free to answer this one in that thread.)
| 10/11/2002: |
Finally, voting has ended, and results are announced. Rather than go over them all here, I'll just point you to the list in the café.
Highlights...
Those people who aren't going to win mozzies, because they do unpopular but necessary stuff, or work in the background. The metas that track down abuse and get all the hate mail, the editalls that work through greens or reds in the background, or fix spelling mistakes and broken categories, and the editors that don`t belong to a particular community where they can get support (a language, a top level, a real life community, or a chat room.)
won the special achievement award. 
Sure, they cheated rpfuller/dlugan out of a runner-up position by splitting the votes, but who cares. If the award description describes you, congratulations, you deserve it. :)
It should be obvious to staff which feature the editors want, "This URL also in unreviewed in" winning with 116 votes to the runner-up's 30. Now taking bets on the chances of getting this feature by the next awards. Or an RDF. [Ed: The RDF is looking quite likely actually. So stop being so darned mean.]
hikaruchan's runner-up position in the best Arts editor award brings to an end her perpetual nominee streak, sorry about that, but hey, at least you didn't win.
Bizarre results in the Chinese_Simplified awards this year, with all four best Chinese_Simplified nominees winning or running-up (2 each), and even more bizarrely, all four best new Chinese_Simplified nominees winning.
Two quality paradoxical joint winners this year, clariciam and not clariciam winning best World/Czech, and tvbig and not tvbig winning best World/Russian.
Best new World/Suomi turned out a little weird this year, loosely resembling the token Iraqi presidential poll, with the only nominee beating themself. (8 votes to 3) 'twould have been awfully embarrassing had they lost. Oh, they did. Hrm.
The winner of the best new science editor award was one of the originally missed off nominees. Bet he's glad they sorted that one out.
And you'll remember the comment about best new arts editor. Well, last time's winner has held onto their crown, but does have to share it with the other joint winner.
And to complete the perfect tribute to the Spring 2001 mozzies, the result of the Biggest Luzer award.
| robjones | 20 | 14.0% |
| newwave | 36 | 25.2% |
| rpfuller | 18 | 12.6% |
| Each of the above editors are equally talented and prolific luzers. It is not possible to choose between them. | 69 | 48.3% |
Compare these with Spring 2001:
| robjones | 27 | 15.1% |
| newwave | 46 | 25.7% |
| rpfuller | 16 | 8.9% |
| Each of the above editors are equally talented and prolific luzers. It is not possible to choose between them. | 90 | 50.3% |
Despite a slightly lower turnout at the polls this time (143 to 179) the result is essentially the same. Beautiful. (Even if I lost, hey, at least I made gains.)
And yours truly won nothing. Which will do wonders for his self-esteem. He's probably off crying himself to sleep. And it's all your fault. [Ed: No, it's your fault.]
| Speeches: |
Anyway, that's more than enough of me. Now time to hear what you've been saying about the awards.
Congratulations to racegirl [Best New Sports Editor]- my Schumacher move (ref: Spanish F1 GP 1997) failed to break her wings on turn 4 (item 81), and she flew on to win the race. Meanwhile the attempt damaged my suspension and slowed me down to second place [Runner-up Best New Sports Editor]. Congrats to the podium finish of zoran too; I'll be looking to your Tai Chi category to relax :-)
Luckily with winning Best New Science Editor I should be able to investigate my suspension failure above, redesign my aerodynamics, and try to qualify well for the Spring 2003 season :-) Congratulations too go to abeisaw [Runner-up Best New Science Editor] your excellent work in Science/Archeology is much appreciated and a very useful reference for an armchair archeologist such as myself :-)
Special thanks go to gti96 for mentoring with sound and honest advice; orlady for logical guidance and encouragement; dollsandtoys for coaxing me into more categories; and everyone in the forums for the community.
Thanks to the folks who voted me best new editor in Smutland. However, I really am disappointed in this season's Mozzies. I wish there would have been some of the ridiculous awards that I've seen in the past. I thought that they were to be light-hearted awards, mainly tongue-in-cheek, given to peers as a way to boost morale. After reading threads about the past awards I was eager to see what kind of nonsense might pop up this time. I mean, really, newwave + newwave as cutest couple? Priceless! This season's awards were dry and could have used a nice Chardonnay at the least to help them go down (if not something stronger). I'm sure they motivate some people, but I don't see much of a morale boost. I've caught a glimpse of some benefits of people looking up other's profiles and getting to know them a little, so that's good. But if I want serious editor discussion I'll stick to the regular forums. The Mozzies are part of the Penguin Cafe. Where was the silliness? Where was the tomfoolery? Maybe next time we can get back to the task of lightening up.
I don't like speeches, sorry. But if you want, you can put my thanx to editor chasm who has nominated me. :) And voting public.
| 13/11/2002: |
Some time after 3pm: The dashboard note about voting is gone. Either that, or that hide everything to do with the awards feature got implemented and defaulted to on... Nope, can still see the thread, guess it's the former. :(
| 16/11/2002: |
Just in, another acceptance speech. :)
Hello, I'm called Marco, marcozark, and I have been an ODP-DMOZ editor since april 2002; I was a nominee for Best New Editor and runner-up for Best New Editor World/Italiano. I'm truly satisfied with the experience: a free and democratic site where everyone can express his or her own ability to analyse and synthesise. In the ODP, every one of the editors can propose a personal contribution for the increase of the Directory according to the professionalism, interests, and also the hobbies, that he or she prefers. What my goal has been is the possibility of being able to advance in the management of upper level categories quickly. Diligence and enjoyment are the secrets needed to arrive at the goal. I would like to give some advice to the new editors: always listen to the suggestions of the editors that have more experience; don't be angry when it seems that they do not understand your ideas: they do it for your growth. I want to say thank you to the editors that have given me their confidence, in particular all the Italian metas. Good job to all, with the hope that we can stay together for a long, long time.
| 4/12/2002: |
Ooh, awards graphics by donaldb. Neat.
Including the inimitable biggest luzer awards:
(Guess that puts the nail in the Fall coffin. November 2002 Editor Awards it is.)
Kudos to donaldb for putting all that on a mozzie.
| 7/12/2002: |
A late, but welcome (all those awards, and so few speeches?), entrant to the acceptance speech collection:
Thanks everyone for your support. Personally, I consider it most important to realise that running Science is a matter of teamwork, perhaps more than any other area. No editor can consider himself/herself to be competent enough to understand all of it, due to the understanding of technical material that is required, although a big picture understanding of what is in it, and its nuances, is useful. I would like to thank in particular the other editors (some of whom are highly qualified experts) who contribute their technical expertise and their time and effort to building, maintaining and improving such an important area of the directory.
| 19/12/2002: |
And another late entry. :)
I would like to thank everybody who voted me for the World/Español award and my sincere salutations to the co-awarded editor (Meta) ferrando and his voters (you bunch of traitors!! ;o), cough, cough.)
To the ones who didn't vote for me, I'll try to work harder to convince you all!!!
Special thanks to editor vpamies for trusting me as a good nominee :)
The ODP is the greatest multicultural editing experience of planet web, nuff said. My interest on the forthcoming editing experience will be focused on helping in the developing of strong links and symmetry between the Top/ branch and World/Español branch and between the Regional branch and the equivalent World/Español/Países, and of course the relation between all subcats of World/
(Symmetry, a very important aspect and goal of the ODP Directory)
Also to keep defending the right that all sites have to be listed no matter their political opinions, we base our editing process on objetivity and not subjetivity.
It is my sincere wish that the stronger the virtual links between all categories, the stronger the cultural links on the web and therefore maybe some day the same strong links and respect in the real world, why not?.
Peace and love for everyone ;o) !!!
| 20/12/2002: |
A month on, here I am censoring tidying the HTML up on my awards diary so I can publish it.
The next awards should be the Spring 2003 awards. Be sure to campaign for more ridiculous awards when they come around. And happy editing!
- rpfuller
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